Analysis of Agricultural Holdings of the Visegrad Four in the Post-Accession Period

Abstract

Abstract Visegrad Cooperation is the regional organization of four states known as the Visegrad Group or the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia). The purpose of cooperation is joint representation of economic, diplomatic and political interests of these Central and Eastern European countries and coordination of their possible measures. In the framework of this study, the major trends regarding the average area and farm number of agricultural holdings in the Visegrad Group are examined and evaluated. We attempted to elucidate structural differences between the farm structures of these countries, their different and unusual development and its reasons. Despite these differences, we have uncovered a number of identical trends and joint points as well. The average farm size in Slovakia and the Czech Republic was 28 or 135 hectares in 2007, while in 2010, this figure changed to 75 or 152 hectares in the circle of the observed agricultural holdings. For both countries, therefore, a significant increase in farm size was observed in the period under survey. While in Hungary the average size of 6 hectares in 2007 increased to 8 hectares in three years, then in Poland, the average farm was 12 or 10 hectares in size in the years under survey. In the circle of these countries, therefore, only a slight shift, mainly stagnation was observed, albeit on different bases: while the number of holdings under survey increased in Poland, it decreased in Hungary (similarly to Slovakia and the Czech Republic). Investigating the details regarding farm structure in these countries, it can be stated that most holdings carried out their activities on an area of under 20 hectares, in respect of distribution of agricultural land in the countries of the Visegrad Four. However, the survey results also revealed that in the vast majority of cases, the number of farms decreased, but there was an increase in their average size, that is, the process of concentration that has been experienced in the Western part of the European Union for the last two decades can be observed in these four countries as well.